Time To Actually Read Alito's Opinions

Flavia Colgan writes, "The left needs to determine whether they are willing to sink a candidate for the court that has expressed pro-choice legal opinions three out of four times, because of the one time he did not."

Actually, the left needs people who aren't spreading misinformation.

In none of the three opinions Colgan refers to did Alito express his own support for Roe. In each case, he simply followed Supreme Court rulings. As a lower court judge, he has to do this. He has no option.

For example, Colgan writes that "in 1997[,] he found that the Constitution does not extend protections to a fetus." Wrong. He didn't find it. The Supreme Court did, and he said as much: "...the Supreme Court has held that a fetus is not a 'person' within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment." (People For The American Way concluded the statement says nothing about his view of Roe.)

In the 2000 Farmer case that struck down a late-term abortion ban in New Jersey, Media Matters writes "Alito issued a concurring opinion in Farmer, rather than joining the majority opinion, in order to indicate that he was voting to strike down the abortion ban only because he was obligated to follow Supreme Court precedent..."

Prolifeblogs.com accurately reads between the lines, "He's offering the best pro-life opinion he can under the circumstances of being bound by SCOTUS [the Supreme Court of the United States]."

Same deal with the 1995 case Blackwell which involved a procedural hurdle in Pennsylvania making it harder for Medicaid to pay for an abortion in cases of rape, incest and when a woman's life is in danger. Alito struck down the hurdle because, as the National Women's Law Center chief said, "He was operating within these broader constraints that apply to lower court judges and don't apply to a Supreme Court justice."

Furthermore, Colgan's post suggests abortion is the main issue that the public should consider when sizing up Alito. Reproductive freedom is a huge issue, but there are other huge issues. And Alito's record is awful on all of them.

He's awful on the environment. He's awful on workers' rights. He's awful on equality for women and minorities. Related to all of those issues, he continually throws up roadblocks to citizens simply seeking their day in court -- which is making the corporate lobby salivate over his nomination.

If we unite and successfully stop Alito, we will have the political capital to force the severely weakened Bush to nominate a truly impartial judge. If we bog ourselves down making excuses for Alito, he will skate to confirmation, and the corporate elites and the fringe fundamentalist religious leaders will own our Court.